To the uninitiated, the sight of Everett Hackett running alone through the streets of New London and Waterford with a police escort on Saturday morning may have been somewhat jarring.

But the sure sign of one of the most revered road races in the state came in the varying distances behind Hackett of the more than 500 runners in the 51st annual Ocean Beach John and Jessie Kelley Road Race.

At 9 a.m. sharp, Hackett shot out of a cannon at Ocean Beach Park and never looked back, finishing the 11.6-mile course in 59 minutes, 36 seconds. He was the only runner to finish in less than an hour.

He finished nearly two and a half minutes in front of second-place finisher Jeff Wadecki, of Ledyard (1:01.59). Michael Conway was third and Michael LeDuc, the NCAA Division III 3,000-meter steeplechase national champion and a senior at Connecticut College, was fourth.

“(Hackett) had a mission from the beginning,” said LeDuc, who won the race last year. “I ran a little faster than last year, but so did a lot of other people. After the first half mile, I knew he had it locked up. He’s no joke.”

Hackett, who graduated from George Mason University in the spring, went out fast and kept a pace of 5:08 per mile.

“That’s not usually my style, but I’ve had some bad races the past few weeks, the past month,” Hackett said. “I knew I was in decent shape, so I just wanted to go out and run hard. I could care less if I crashed and burned. I just wanted to know that I gave it a good effort. Those other races I was going out and thinking about tactics and stuff and it just didn’t work. I wanted to run hard. If someone was with me, great, and if not, then fine.”

The only person with Hackett was bicyclist Jay Sullivan, of Waterford, who tries to ride some of the way with the runners every year.

“He was helping me so much,” Hackett said of Sullivan. “He was talking to me the whole time, just kept my mind off the pain of running hard. That guy was great.”

(Running alone) gives you a mental boost. If no one’s around and you’re leading a race, it feels good, but it’s hard not having a pack to run with.”

Hackett was born in New London and went to high school at Hall in West Hartford. He and his high school teammates have been coming to the race in growing numbers since 2009.

Krisztina Dearborn, who will be a senior at Central Connecticut State University, was the top women’s finisher. It was her third year running and the first time she wasn’t beaten by her former coach and Stonington High standout Laura Brustolon.

Page 2 of 2 -
The race is the brainchild of John J. Kelley, the godfather of local racing.

Kelley won the 1957 Boston Marathon and was a lifelong resident of the area. He passed away at age 80 in 2011 and this year’s race was the second held since he died.

It is one of the few road races in the country without an entry fee and is the second-oldest race in the state after the Manchester Road Race. Last year, it was named Race of the Year by New England Runner Magazine.